Changes in your Active Directory (AD) can happen often, and randomly. Whether it is due to changes in a group or an update to the status of an employee, having your workforce change can be a critical security concern if not addressed immediately. Wavecrest CyBlock Cloud customers can now import and schedule automatic updates for any changes to your organization’s AD Groups and IDs, using the CyBlock Directory Agent. There is no need to manually recreate groups and IDs for the cloud service. The features also include a configuration wizard for easy AD setup, the ability to add only new data from AD or replace all groups and IDs, and the ability to view your list of groups and IDs to verify the imported grouping structure. Configuration is easy to implement, and confirmation e-mails are sent to verify the import. With CyBlock Directory Agent, you will know that your changes have been synced, per your schedule or manually at any time, with your CyBlock Cloud account.

CyBlock Cloud Web Security Solution provides comprehensive Web controls, threat protection, reporting, bandwidth management, and more — all in a deployment requiring no hardware or software to buy and install, and no maintenance. Find out more about all the Web Security product lines at Wavecrest Computing.

March Madness begins on March 17th this year. We all know that employees check out highlights or even stream a whole game. According to Turner Sports’ Will Funk’s interview with AdWeek,Turner did 70 million live streams on broadband and mobile during March Madness 2014. That is a lot of streaming. With all the streaming and new apps that are out since last year, 2015 will likely set another record.

This year, have the choice to allow your employees some freedom to watch and enjoy! CyBlock Web Security Solutions will help protect your business, blocking sites known for malware and proactively controlling bandwidth consumption, while allowing responsible viewing.

With Wavecrest’s Bandwidth Management in CyBlock, there are numerous ways to be able to control access when you need to. With Real-Time Data Usage Monitoring, you will be able to easily view current data usage for the entire enterprise, detect unexpected spikes that could indicate excessive data use, or just observe the last 5, 10, or 15 minutes of real-time updates.

You can also make sure the critical business operations remain functioning efficiently, even during the games, by using the Bandwidth Throttling features. Be more restrictive as the noncritical usage gets higher by setting one of the automatically triggered, higher-usage policy thresholds to throttle more or even block. E-mail alerts will keep you informed wherever you are. Once a policy is activated, policy-specific traffic is throttled or blocked, allowing business-critical applications (VoIP, CRM, etc.) to continue operating as needed.

Don’t forget about protecting your company from malware. March Madness search results have had a history of being known for malware in past years, and this year will likely be no different. As your employees search for brackets or results, CyBlock blocks traffic to the constantly growing number of sites that generate and/or promote malware. Keep out viruses, Trojan horses, phishing attacks, and more.

March Madness has become a way of life. Decide how your company will handle the traffic and proactively prepare for it by letting CyBlock help protect and secure your business and your employees. Find out more about all the Web Security product lines at Wavecrest Computing.

The release also contains updates to the MSP Partner Portal to include the new Directory Agent module. Another enhancement is the ability to create a white list and a black list in the same category policy. The enhancements are highlighted below.

CyBlock Directory Agent. The following features have been added:

The User Management pages allow you to manage how you would like to import AD groups and IDs, create an AD configuration, and import users from AD.

The System Status pages show product communication and event information which is used by Technical Support for troubleshooting purposes.

The Settings pages allow you to restart the service for the product as well as pair your Directory Agent installation with your cloud account by entering an access key.

The Help menu contains product documentation, Support pages, product updates, and contact information.

You will receive e-mail notifications on the availability of an access key or a newly generated access key, and the status of a manual or scheduled AD import.

MSP Partner Portal. The following features have been added:

The Home Page shows a status icon for the CyBlock Directory Agent module.

When viewing the details of a customer, a new D Agent tab displays the status of the Directory Agent module, pairing status, communication port, and access key.

You will receive e-mail notifications on the availability of a newly generated access key for Directory Agent and the status of a manual or scheduled AD import.

White List/Black List. The ability to create a white list as well as a black list in the same Web category policy is now available. You may enter and save both allowed and blocked URLs.

Many times mobile devices are the primary, or only, organizational interface for an employee. With this evolving mobile business environment, it has become critical to protect both the company and the employee. With CyBlock Mobile Security Browser App v2.0, a companion to the easy-to-implement CyBlock Cloud Web Security Solution, you will enable your employees to work efficiently and securely while accessing the Internet on their mobile devices. Easily enforce your company’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) on iOS devices by defining one or more Web-use policies to successfully address Web security threats, Internet abuse, legal liability, and workforce productivity.

Even with corporate Acceptable Use Policies (AUPs), the majority of an organization’s Web traffic is often operating unchecked, opening the entire network up to bandwidth hogs, productivity-draining activity, and security risks. With Bandwidth Management in CyBlock Cloud, easily create user-defined policies and configure multiple-usage thresholds to dynamically trigger caps.

As a business that understands the necessity, or just desirability, of employees’ access to the Internet, do you worry about when there is too much nonessential Web activity? Maybe Facebook or Pandora is clogging your bandwidth? Wavecrest has the solution that can help specifically target and throttle Web content category-based traffic, such as social networking or audio streaming. With Bandwidth Management in CyBlock, gain the ability to allow access, but be more restrictive as the usage gets higher by setting one of your higher usage thresholds to throttle more or completely block nonessential categories or user groups. Set e-mail alerts to keep you informed wherever you are, knowing that your defined policies are automatically triggered and proactively taking care of the issue. Once a policy is activated, policy-specific traffic is throttled or blocked, allowing business-critical applications (VoIP, CRM, etc.) to continue operating as needed.

Now including Bandwidth Management, CyBlock Cloud provides comprehensive Web controls, threat protection, reporting, simplified management, and more — all in a deployment requiring no hardware or software to buy and install, and no maintenance.

Finding that Pandora or ESPN tend to show up consistently in your employee Internet access reports? Which specific employees are using these sites the most? With Wavecrest Computing’s Site Audit Summary Report, we provide you with the flexibility to see who the most active users are, giving you another tool to quickly access the information you need. Now available in our CyBlock Software, CyBlock Cloud, and Cyfin products, the Site Audit Summary Report lists the users with the highest volume of activity when visiting a particular site. This report can be run to summarize more than one site and shows the total number of visits made by the user, hourly total visits, and hourly total kilobytes read. This information can be used for such purposes as setting a bandwidth or filtering policy (CyBlock), revising your AUP, or personnel appraisals.

In Release 9.1.4, we are excited to provide our CyBlock Cloud customers with our Bandwidth Management feature that enables IT administrators to throttle bandwidth at the Web content category level. This feature targets noncritical Web traffic and keeps your mission-critical Web traffic flowing. The release also includes the addition of the Site Audit Summary report as well as many enhancements to CyBlock App for iOS. The enhancements are highlighted below.

Bandwidth Management in CyBlock Cloud. The following features have been added:

The Throttling Policy Configuration page allows you to implement a restriction policy when enterprise bandwidth consumption exceeds a preestablished threshold.

You can create, edit, and delete policies based on categories or groups.

Cap limits can be added to throttle bandwidth for noncritical categories or groups. They can also be used to block nonessential categories when a threshold is exceeded.

The Real-Time Bandwidth Monitor page provides current bandwidth usage data for the enterprise. When a bandwidth throttling policy is activated, an alert with the policy name and its associated threshold will be shown.

An e-mail notification will automatically be sent to the administrator for each bandwidth throttling policy activated.

Site Audit Summary. This report lists the top users in your organization who visited a particular site. The report can be run for more than one site and shows the total number of visits made by the user, hourly total visits, and hourly total kilobytes read.

CyBlock App for iOS. The following features have been added:

The App is now compatible with iOS 8 and works with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

The user interface has been updated to match the iOS 8 UI for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

The Web blocking message and blocked extension messages have been added to the App.

The ability to perform a search from the search bar has been added. The App will use Google to search for the text that you enter.

If you are at version 9.0.5 or later, you can upgrade to the latest release by going to the Help – Check for Updates screen in your product.

If you are at version 6.8.3.a or earlier, you can download the latest release by going to CyBlock Software Downloads or Cyfin Downloads. To upgrade CyBlock Appliance, please contact Technical Support at (321) 953-5351, Ext. 4 or support@wavecrest.net.

Release 9.1.3 provides our CyBlock Cloud customers with information on their disk storage usage, bandwidth usage, highest number of daily monitored users, and the date on which this occurred. The enhancement is described below.

Usage Statistics. The following features have been added:

On the Home page, a Usage Statistics section provides customers with usage information, such as their disk storage and bandwidth usage.

The Storage field indicates the amount of disk storage used as well as the percentage used based on the reporting storage option set in your customer account.

The Bandwidth field shows the amount of bandwidth used for the month.

The Peak Users field shows the highest number of daily monitored users for the month and the date on which this occurred.

If your storage usage percentage exceeds 90%, a warning will be displayed indicating that usage is critical and to contact Sales.

All bandwidth and monitored users data is calculated monthly and is reset at midnight on the first of the month.

If you are at version 9.0.5 or later, you can upgrade to the latest release by going to the Help – Check for Updates screen in your product.

If you are at version 6.8.3.a or earlier, you can download the latest release by going to CyBlock Software Downloads or Cyfin Downloads. To upgrade CyBlock Appliance, please contact Technical Support at (321) 953-5351, Ext. 4 or support@wavecrest.net.

IBM said Cyber Monday was the biggest online shopping day in history, with a 20.6% increase in online sales.

The chart above shows Cyber Monday sales dramatically increasing around 9 am on Monday and holding steady throughout the entire work day.

With more and more of your employees doing their shopping online, it has become a cyber security issue for businesses making sure their networks are secure, managing bandwidth and protecting their employee from identity theft . CyBlock Web Security products will help you manage all of this from an easy to use single console.

In Release 9.1.2, we are excited to provide our customers with CyBlock Hybrid, a new deployment option that extends Web filtering and monitoring to your off-premises employees. It combines your existing CyBlock installation with a CyBlock Cloud service. The enhancements are described below.

CyBlock Appliance and CyBlock Software

CyBlock Hybrid Deployment. The following features have been added:

A CyBlock Cloud account will be created for you.

The Settings – Hybrid page allows you to pair your existing installation of CyBlock with your cloud account by entering an access key.

After pairing occurs, the User Management – Authentication – Rules tab will display a Cloud entry with the same authentication type as the Default entry.

When configuration changes occur in your on-premises CyBlock installation, they automatically sync with CyBlock Cloud. The configurations that are synced include the following:

Blocking policies

Web search filtering

Blocking message

Groups and IDs

Custom categories

SSL Inspection data

The ability to manually sync configuration changes with your cloud account is available on the Settings – Hybrid page. You can also temporarily stop all communication between your CyBlock installation and cloud account, reestablish communication, and delete the pairing.

CyBlock Appliance, CyBlock Cloud, and CyBlock Software

Application Controls. Additional YouTube video ID formats are now accepted, and previous formats have been updated.

CyBlock Software and Cyfin

Anonymous IDs in Reports. This includes the following changes:

An Anonymous IDs option has been added to the Settings – Reports – Options page to allow anonymous IDs in reports.

With this option selected, the Anonymous IDs field on the Create Report page will be available to enable anonymous IDs in the report you are running.

The Create Report page for the following reports will display the Anonymous IDs field:

If you are at version 9.0.5 or later, you can upgrade to the latest release by going to the Help – Check for Updates screen in your product.

If you are at version 6.8.3.a or earlier, you can download the latest release by going to CyBlock Software Downloads or Cyfin Downloads. To upgrade CyBlock Appliance, please contact Technical Support at (321) 953-5351, Ext. 4 or support@wavecrest.net.